The cover of Emma Trelles’ Tropicalia: a photo of strings of clear beads hanging from a blue metal trellis in a potted plant on a green, wooded lawn
(47/61) “Fill the glass; light the wick, / prick three drops upon a sheet.” —Emma Trelles, “Novena Poderosa” (Tropicalia) Notre Dame Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Alison C. Rollins’ Black Bell: a drawing of an iron harness tree of bells designed to be fitted around the waist and neck of runaway slaves
(46/61) “Like cartographers, the Language poets / hold tight to their non-sequitur ships.” —Alison C. Rollins, “Cognitive Mapping” (Black Bell) @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Elizabeth Woody’s Luminaries of the Humble: a painting of a black bird flying in a yellow sky underneath a striated, light blue grid
(45/61) “The body is flat and dull as a pie pan” —Elizabeth Woody, “Twy-Twy” (Luminaries of the Humble) The University of Arizona Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Sahar Muradi’s OCTOBERS: a scratched photograph of an Afghani family of a man, woman, and three children standing against a white wall, overlaid with paintings and sketches of flowers, body parts, and mythological creatures
(44/61) “Yes, I say, for calligraphy, for the golden threads of our mouths.” —Sahar Muradi, “How Do You Laugh in Dari?” (OCTOBERS) @upittpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard: a photograph of a hand-written Civil War letter, with a perpendicular overlay of another letter
(43/61) “the endless why and why and why / my mother cannot answer, her mouth closed, a gesture / toward her future: cold lips stitched shut” —Natasha Trethewey, “Southern Gothic” (Native Guard) Ecco #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Solmaz Sharif’s Customs: a watercolor of a red square.
(42/61) “What do you teach? / Poetry. // I hate poetry, the officer says. / I only like writing / where you can make an argument” —Solmaz Sharif, “He, Too” (Customs) @graywolfpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s Something About Living: an abstract watercolor painting of a uneven grid of aqua, light blue, and light grey squares
(41/61) “The snipers are distracted, sexting their girlfriends. // The snipers’ eyes are blinded by smoke from our burning tires.” — @lenakt.bsky.social, “Variations on a Last Chance” (Something About Living) @uakronpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Dipika Mukherjee’s Dialect of Distant Harbors: a colored drawing of various people at a museum looking at a collaged painting red and peach-colored distorted bodies
(40/61) “My vegetative brother lives. / But who wanted this?” —Dipika Mukherjee, “Buddha Sharanam Gachchami” (Dialect of Distant Harbors)
@cavankerrypress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Jennifer Chang’s An Authentic Life: a painting of a pale, loosely-joined, peach-colored room with a built-in bench and bed, and a window and skylight giving way to a pale blue sky
(39/61) “My friend, who lost her husband / twice, first in death / and then in betrayal, orders / the pinot noir.” —Jennifer Chang, “A Conversation between Women” (An Authentic Life)
@coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tacey M. Atsitty’s (At) Wrist: a photo of a black-haired woman with a black top and dark blue jeans lying on her back on a speckled beige floor, with a man wearing a loincloth and a buffalo head embracing her from the side.
(38/61) “I went wading / into stars, pulling my dress up // to my knees—I get like this / when it precipitates: fall // like salt” —Tacey M. Atsitty, “A February Snow” [(At) Wrist] @uwiscpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Janice N. Harrington’s Yard Show: a collage of quilted squares with images of a two white houses and green fruit overlaid over an irregular grid of cream squares bordered in black and green
(37/61) “The historical marker does not say: You could hear / the body's heels knocking against the trunk” —Janice N. Harrington, “With the Walls Remaining” (Yard Show) BOA Editions, Ltd. #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tara M. Stringfellow’s Magic Enuff: a painting of a silhouette of a dark-skinned woman in profile with flowing black hair followed with blossoms amidst multi-colored foliage
(36/61) “learned to roll my hair with funeral programs” —Tara M. Stringfellow, “Only Read from Exodus” (Magic Enuff) The Dial Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Marcie R. Rendon’s Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium: an abstract photograph of a smeary and crystalline band of orange, pink, and purple.
(35/61) “you think I do nothing / all day / I am busy loving / human beings” —Marcie R. Rendon, “Dream Songs” (Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium) @uminnpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Stella Wong’s Stem: a drawing of a black-haired woman in a red dress holding an open book and standing on an orange stoop at the edge of a sea of black books as the wind blows her hair and the trees around her
(34/61) “Your right knee is a haunted staircase” —Stella Wong, “Need” (Stem) @princetonupress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Danusha Laméris’ Blade by Blade: a microscopic photograph of the serrated edge of a blade of green grass
(33/61) “She goes before me, / shining darkly, into a city— // of gold, of salt—that I will never see.” —Danusha Laméris, “Daughter” (Blade by Blade) @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Yaccaira Salvatierra’s Sons of Salt: a black-and-white photo of a figure facing away and standing in the desert wearing a dark cape and lace shawl backwards with a tattoo of the Virgin Mary on their back.
(32/61) “The sun sets & we walk towards it / without our shadows behind us.” —Yaccaira Salvatierra, “We Are Boys” (Sons of Salt) BOA Editions, Ltd. #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Mahogany L. Browne’s I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love: a black figure, made up of collaged black-and-white photos of people, sitting against a wall with their head on their knees and hugging their legs
(31/61) “I wonder: // Does he approve / of my line breaks?” — @mobrowne.bsky.social (I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love) @haymarketbooks.org #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tracy K. Smith’s The Body’s Question: an abstract painting of capillary-like black lines in front of a red background
(29/61) “Is Luis crying? No—but makeup / Streaks his face like newsprint / That’s been rained on” —Tracy K. Smith, “Serenade” (The Body's Question) Graywolf Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Lynne Thompson’s Beg No Pardon: a painting of empty blue and white shoes in concentric rings around a circle of white handprints on dark blue and gray mosaic.
(27/61) “You were born at County Gen., the random / upshot of a collision between an urgent / virgin, a married man, and the backseat / of a Studebaker” —Lynne Thompson, “She, named P_____ at birth, speaks to me, says” (Beg No Pardon) @perugiapress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC
The cover of Brittany Rogers’ Good Dress: a photo of a black woman with a black Afro wearing a black coat over a red dress, holding up a bundle of baby’s breath in front of her face and standing barefoot on concrete in front of a nailed-together yellow wooden wall with weeds growing up from the cracks in the ground.
(26/61) “Outsiders didn’t call her what they call us / for wearing sunglasses in a city / where we are the only light.” — @britrogers.bsky.social, “Doin’ Too Much” (Good Dress) @tinhouse.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Rosa Alcalá’s You: a photograph of a brown-haired woman with her hair pulled back and wearing a black-and-white striped crop-top and blue cut-off jean shorts closing her eyes and dancing in a crowd
(25/61) “The backspace would like me to tap out the soreness of the telling, until the telling is gone and can move freely.” —Rosa Alcalá, “How It Started, How It’s Going {An Introduction}” (YOU)
@coffeehousepress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of m.s. RedCherries’ mother: a stack of black, doubled-sided triangles against a white background.
(24/61) “I fell asleep and woke up a thousand years later and a thousand years before.” —m.s. RedCherries, “we slept at last” (mother) Penguin Books #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tina Cane’s Once More with Feeling: a black-and-white photograph of early-to-mid-twentieth century New York City storefronts and tenement apartments above.
(23/61) “the Telly Savalas pinball machine / on Rivington Street / girls playing spit” —Tina Cane, “The Fifth Thought” (Once More with Feeling) Veliz Books #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Rage Hezekiah’s Yearn: a painting of a white ginkgo leaf against a blue background
(22/61) “We weren't fooling anyone— / rehearsing neutral faces, hands / down each other's pants / in the minivan's back seat.” —Rage Hezekiah, “On Vacation” (Yearn) @diodeeditions.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Karen An-hwei Lee’s The Beautiful Immunity: a red and gray drawing of a polyhedral virus
(21/61) “age forty is not / fourteen reversed, a girl's ambling love / sweeter than the blackest cherry moon, / than a fly-bitten rash of river blindness” —Karen An-hwei Lee, “On Fourteen Gratitudes” (The Beautiful Immunity) @tupelopress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days
The cover of Stephanie Choi’s The Lengest Neoi: an Impressionist painting of a figure in white clothes hugging a red column in front of a gray Chinese drawing of a town and landscape.
(20/61) “i set my tear-soaked bread in the sun to dry / wives of white men tell me: this is what will make it rise.” —Stephanie Choi, “So Many Wet Feet Everywhere” (The Lengest Neoi) University of Iowa Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Kenzie Allen’s Cloud Missives: a series of blue polyhedra on blue shelves
(19/61) “Maybe some things have gone / too far now— / pastel winds, those bomb-ass leaves and sketched echoes” —Kenzie Allen, “In Which I Become (Pocahontas)” (Cloud Missives) @tinhouse.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Amber McBride’s Thick with Trouble: a painting of a black woman in an aqua dress with pink ruffled bows in the front, sitting in front of a dark bronze floral drape and holding a black doll made of fiber
(18/61) “handprints appear / on the foggy window. / & he runs for the front door / that is already hotter than hell.” — @ambsmcbride.bsky.social, “Hip Bones” (Thick with Trouble) Penguin Books #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Don Mee Choi’s Mirror Nation: the title of the book in big black, overlapping rows of letters.
(17/61) “incidents where time neither moves clockwise nor counterclockwise. It remains paralyzed as if in a stupor, as it was in the case of the clock in Shōhei Imamura's film Black Rain.” —Don Mee Choi (Mirror Nation) Wave Books #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of January Gill O’Neil’s Glitter Road: a topographical map of the Mississippi River meander belt.
(16/61) “Love is a kind of syntax, / a soft rhyme, prison time” —January Gill O’Neil, “Manifesto” (Glitter Road)
@cavankerrypress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
